OVERVIEW
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Untitled, Public Artwork Light Projection on American Eagle Memorial, Canberra
2018 Walking in Bali, Tony Raka Gallery Bali travelling to Four Seasons Hotel, Ubud Bali
2015 The Enchanted Water Garden at the Never Ending Colour Wall, MADA Gallery Melbourne
2014 Telstra Commission Public Art project, Phase 2 The Outsider, Melbourne
2012 Telstra Commission Public ArtWork, The Outsider, Telstra Exchange, Melbourne
2011 Water World, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2008 Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney
2008 Philistine, Jenny Port Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
2005 Sky Writing Project over Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
2005 Mary Lou Mini POL Oxygen Magazine and Mini Cooper Project for Sydney Esquisse Art and Design Festival, Sydney and Federation Square, Melbourne
2004 Art Only on Sundays Event Season, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2004 Liar!, Public Art Project, Melbourne
2003 I Want To Play With Boys, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Identity, Conny Dietzschold, Sydney
2000 Sweet Anarchy, The Australian Embassy, Tokyo
2000 Small Works for Small People, Talk Artists Initiative, Melbourne
1999 Small Works for Small People, Room 35, Gitte Weise, Sydney
1998 Throw Brother from the Train, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
1998 New Videos, Artspace, Sydney
Mary Lou Pavlovic was born in Canberra in 1965. Completing a Bachelor of Arts in Painting at the Canberra Institute of the Arts in 1989, she moved to London in 1992 and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1996. Mary Lou completed a PhD in Fine Art at Monash University Melbourne with an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship in 2015. For the PhD, she was also granted an Endeavour Research Fellowship, and undertook a two year residence in Bali to create a body of artwork in 2012. Mary Lou has lectured in Visual Art throughout the UK and at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne from 1996 – 2007. Pavlovic's work has been included in the Edinburgh Festival, the Internationale Photoszene Cologne, and Tate Gallery London's Pandemonium. Throughout her career, Pavlovic has taken an active role in organising strategic, political exhibitions and events, often involving various communities; the artists views this as a vital part of her practice. In 2017, Mary Lou Pavlovic was awarded an Apexart New York Franchise exhibition to curate an exhibition based on hers and other artists' collaborations with prisoners incarcerated in Indonesian jails. Funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation, New York, Pavlovic's original exhibition proposal was selected from 386 anonymous proposals from 61 countries and jurored by a panel of 200 international art experts. 'Dipping in the Kool Aid' was presented at Tony Raka Gallery Bali in March 2018. In 2019, Pavlovic was invited to curate an exhibition, Maladjustment,' with hers and leading Indonesian women artists, I GAK Murniasih and Arahmaiani at NEKA Museum Bali for the Ubud Writers Festival. In 2025, the artist created a public artwork "Untitled", an unauthorised light projection of the word Genocide on the American Eagle Memorial in the Defence Quarters Canberra. The work was shared by NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge on social media and gathered upwards of 60,000 views and many thousands of likes and shares.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Two Person Exhibitions
2002 Installations, with Nike Savass, Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Cologne
1998 Internationale Photoszene ’98, with Tracey Moffat, Die Weisse Galerie Cologne
1998 Mary Mary Quite Contrary, with Mary Anne Francis, Gasworks Gallery, London
2020 Finalists Exhibition, National Small Sculpture Award, McClelland Gallery Victoria
2019 Maladjustment NEKA Art Museum, Bali
2019 Reinventing Eve, 1Park Avenue, Jakarta, curated by ISA Art Advisory, Jakarta
2018 (curator&exhibitor) Dipping in the Kool Aid, Tony Raka Gallery, Bali
2017 9x5 curated by Elizabeth Gower VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Bali Artist Camp 2016, Made Budhiana Gallery, Bali
2015 Australian Artists and Bali 1930s to Now, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Victoria
2015 Recent Acquisitions, City of Port Phillip Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Paris Bar Büro, Neon Parc Melbourne
2013 Got the Message? 50 Years of Political Protest Art Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Victoria
2012 Artist and Mentor, Bayside Art Gallery Melbourne
2010 Imaging the Apple, curated by Elizabeth Gower and John Neeson, AC Institute, New York.
2008 Cruel and Unusual Punishment, La Trobe University Collection Victoria
2007 Eye to I, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria and touring
2006 Recent Acquisitions, City of Port Phillip, Linden Gallery, Victoria
2005 Material Boys and Girls, Deloitte Offices, Sydney
2005 The Shangri-La Collective, Green Papaya Art Centre, The Philippines
2004 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Municipal Council, Sydney
2004 Imaging the Apple, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria and touring
2004 New Works Hazelhurst Regional Gallery
2004 Southside Art, Deputy Premier John Thwaites Office, Melbourne
2004 The Shangri La Collective, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2004 ABN Amro Emerging Artists Award, ABN Amro Tower, Sydney
2003 Art Cologne, Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney, Cologne
2003 Six Australian Artists, Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Cologne
2003 La Trobe University Collection, La Trobe University VIC
2002 Melbourne Art Fair Conny Dietzschold Gallery Sydney
2002 Sculptures, Objects, Installations, 12 Galleries Sculpture Exhibition, Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney
2002 Sculpture, 12 Galleries Sculpture Exhibition, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, NSW
2001 Fallout (curator&exhibitor) Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne
2001 The Multiple Box, Sydney
2000 Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Conny Dietzschold Gallery
2000 The Retrieved Object, curated by Elizabeth Gower, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
2000 Threads of Humanity, Wollongong City Gallery, NSW
1999 Sci Art ’99, Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Festival, Queensland Sciencentre, Brisbane
1998 Family Credit, Edinburgh Festival Exhibition, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
1998 Pandemonium, Tate Gallery London Contemporary Video Art at LUX Cinema, London Electronic Arts Gallery, UK
1998 Surveillance, Artspace, Sydney
1997 Internationale Photoszene ’97, Die Weisse Galerie, Cologne
1996 MA Degree Show, Goldsmiths College, London
1996 Perseverance Works, Charity House, London
1991 Discrete Entity, Canberra Institute of the Arts, ACT
RESIDENCIES
2024 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney
2020 Made Budhiana Gallery, Bali
2000 Tate Tokyo Residence Tokyo
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Collection
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
Australian National Gallery
City of Port Phillip Collection
La Trobe University (LUMA) Collection
Monash University Collection
National Gallery of Victoria
Vierhig Fluxus Art Collection, Cologne
Johnnie Walker Collection, Tokyo
Private Collections, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe, Indonesia
2019 Curator, 'Maladjustment' NEKA Museum Bali, for Ubud International Writers Festival
2018 Curator' Dipping in the Kool Aid,' Apexart New York Franchise Exhibition at Tony Raka Gallery Bali
2002-2006 Founder of PavModern, mini arts institution:
2006 Julie Panini, 'Art only on Sundays' https://youtu.be/B8q1rvRbkHg
2006 SkyWriting over National Gallery Victoria, Performance at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Street Poster Project at Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne
2004 Jake Chapman Australian Lecture Tour in conjunction with Modular People
2002 Matthew Collings Australian Lecture Tour in conjunction with Melbourne Art Fair
2001 Curator, Fallout, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
2024 Regional Arts NSW Quick Response Grant
2023 NSW Office of Regional Youth -Youth Wellbeing Grant
2021 NAVA Artist Grant
2017 Apexart Franchise Exhibition, New York
2015 Australian Cultural Fund
2014 Finalist City of Port Phillip Urban Design Awards
2014 Telstra Public Art Commission
2012 Port Phillip Cultural Development Grant
2012 Endeavour Research Fellowship (Australia Awards)
2011 Australia Council for the Arts 2011 Australian Postgraduate Scholarship for Doctor of Philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne
2011 Victorian Communities Small Volunteers Grant
2010 Port Phillip Cultural Development Grant
2010 Telstra Commission
2010 Janet Holmes Accort Artist Grant NAVA
2006 Port Phillip Cultural Development Grant
2005 Australia Business Arts Foundation for AFL Grand Final Sky Writing
2004 British Council, for Pavmodern
2004 Reichstein Foundation, for Liar! Public art project
2004 Australia Business Art Foundation, for Liar! Public Art project
2002 British Council Grant, for Matthew Collings Australian Tour
2002 Dep. of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Cultural Awards Scheme 2002 Victorian College of the Arts Teaching and Learning Initiative 2000 Victorian College of the Arts Research Grant
1997 Australian Embassy Bonn Cultural Grant
COLLECTIONS
CURATORIAL/ARTS MANAGEMENT PROJECTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Georgia Curry, 'Artist Harnesses Canberra's Iconic American Eagle for Protest' Canberra Daily and Canberra Weekly, January 24 and January 30, 2025.
'Artist Shares Her Extraordinary Story to Launch March Arts'.
Deborah Iskandar, 'Female Provocation' Time Place Magazine December 2019, p.136-137.
Jean Couteau, 'Menantang Patriarki' Kompas, Sunday 17th November 2019
Deborah Iskandar, 'Refusing to be Silent' Maldadjustment Exhibition Brochure, NEKA Art Museum, Bali, October 2019
Oka Rusmini, 'Maladjustment: Memahami Tubuh Kemerdekaan Perempuan' Bali Post, October 20 2019, p.4
Santi Dwiyarthi, 'Maladjustment: October 26-November 24, 2019' Kompasiana October 15, 2019
Bambang Asrini Widjanarko, Catalogue Entry 'Re-inventing Eve', ISA Gallery, Jakarta, March 2019
Mary Lou Pavlovic, 'Water and Flowers in Bali' Garland Magazine, World Craft Council, July 2018
https://garlandmag.com/article/water-and-flowers-in-bali/
Mary Lou Pavlovic, Author & Catalogue Entry, 'Dipping in the Kool Aid,' Apexart New York, March 2018
Bill Dalton, 'Mary Lou Pavlovic and Indonesia's Prison System', Siapa Column, Bali Advertiser, March, 2018
Richard Horstman, 'Dipping in the Kool Aid: Indonesia's Inmates Show their Artistic Talents', Now! Bali, March, 2018
Richard Horstman 'Exhibition Highlights Bali's Inmates' Jakarta Post, December 1, 2017
Richard Horstman, 'Exhibition Highlights Balinese Landscape, Culture, Jakarta Post, 7th May, 2017
Melissa Penn, 'Mary Lou Pavlovic' Highlife Magazine, Dec/Jan 2016/17, p.74.
Emily Bennett, 'The Transformative Power of Art' Southern Highlands News 16th March, 2016
Mary Lou Pavlovic, 'Provoking Beauty: a Studio Research Project Examining the Provocative Dimensions of Beauty in Visual Art Today', Doctoral Exegesis, Monash University Melbourne, October 2015
Rodney James Catalogue Entry ‘Australian Artists and Bali 1930s to Now’ McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery Victoria October 2015
Martine Harte, ‘Rainbow Artist,’ Engaging Women, www.engagingwomen.com.au 9th October 2014
Richard Watts, ‘The Art of Football’, Artshub, 22 September 2014
Geoff Wallis, Catalogue Entry, ‘Got the Message?’ Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 2013.
Simon Gregg, Catalogue Entry ‘Artist and Mentor’, Bayside Art Gallery 2012
Penny Webb.‘November Highlights’, The Melbourne Age, 27th October 2010
Paul Riordan ‘Pretty on St Kilda Brick Walls’ Port Phillip Leader Jan 23 2012
Juliette Peers, ‘Street Talk with Mary Lou Pavlovic’ Artlink vol 3 no.3 2010
John Neeson Catalogue entry, ‘Imaging the Apple’ AC Institute New York 2010
Paul Riordan ‘Artists love for dad’ Port Phillip Leader 13 Sep 2009
Sarah Rainbird Catalogue, ‘Harmonic Tremors’ Gasworks Gallery Melbourne 2009
Mark Holsworth, 'After the Party' July 15, 2008
https://melbourneartcritic.com/2008/05/15/after-the-party/
POL Oxygen Artist Commission July 2008
Geoff Wallis, Exhibition Catalogue, Eye to I Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 2007
Mary Anne Francis, ‘The Banner Project’ Eyeline Winter 2007
Richard Tipping ‘SkyWriting’ Artlink volume 27 no.1 2007
Gabriella Coslovic "Is there a Fine Art to Sportmanship?" The Age, p.19 Fri 23rd Feb 2007
Virginia Baxter, 'Acting Up - Mary Lou Pavlovic' Realtime no. 77 feb – march 2007
‘St Kilda's Disenfranchised Speak Up’ Artshub Friday Oct.6 2006
Megan Backhouse, ‘Protest Art’ The Age 29 Jan 2006
Rita Damasi ‘PavModern to Protest Games’ Artshub Wed 25th January 2006
Sam Edmonds, ‘Message for MCG Fans’ Melbourne Herald Sun 22 Sep 2005
Alison Barclay, ‘Mary Lou’s Car of Mini Colours’, Melbourne Herald Sun, 13th June 2005
Inge Gilchrist, ‘Spot the Mini behind the Dotting Artist’, MX 10th June 2005
’Going Dotty’ – Metro The Age 21 June 2005
Mary Lou Pavlovic, ‘Hmmmm, Morality, Money, Metonymy, Metaphor,’ Contemporary Broadsheet, Vol 34, No.1 2005
Ted Colless, ‘Institutional Censorship, Romance and Money’, Contemporary Broadsheet, Vol. 33 No. 3, September – November 2004
Ian Findlay 'Anxieties of the Unknown' World Sculpture News (and cover) Volume 10 No.4 Autumn 2004
Katrina Strickland, ‘Graphic art confronts footy’, The Australian, 15 September 2004
Rita Dimasi, ‘Liar, liar: Art on fire’, Arts Hub Australia, 17 September 2004
Editorial ‘No more need to think’, Artlink, Vol. 24 No. 2 2004
Karen Murphy, ‘Yes my work is tough,’ Melbourne Times, Issue14, 14 April 2004
Larissa Dubecki, ‘Deputy Premier’s Staff Too Squeamish for Art Depicting Disability’, The Age, 7 April 2004
Megan Backhouse, ‘Jake Chapman for PavModern’, The Age, 13 March 2004
Sophie Forbat, ‘The Chapman Brothers’, Artlink, Vol 24 No. 1 2004
John Neeson, Catalogue entry ‘Imaging the Apple’, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 2004
Jan Mackey, ‘POL Free CD’ POL Oxygen, Issue 61, January 2004 Tim Elliott, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Pissed Off Young Woman,’ The Big Issue, 14 December 2003
Tim Elliott, ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’, The South China Morning Post, 13 August 2003
Joanna Mendelsson, ‘The Shangri-La Collective’, COFA Artwrite June 2003
Rachelle Unreich, ‘Niagara’s big splash’, Herald Sun, 12 July 2003
Megan Backhouse, ‘Exploring the artist-as-celebrity’, The Age, 5 July 2003
Tim Elliot, ‘Mary Quite Contrary’, Not Only Black & White, Issue No. 67, July 2003
Matthew Collings, ‘All the fun of the fair’, Australian Art Review, Issue No. 1, March – June 2003
Georgina Safe, ‘Brats of Brit Art to Talk it Up’, The Australian, 22 April 2003
Mary Lou Pavlovic, ‘Fallout,’ Artlink, Volume 23, Issue No.1, 2003
Jan Mackey, ‘Pav Prospects’, POL OXYGEN, Issue No. 59, April – May 2003
Susan McCulloch, ‘Contemporary Challenge for Critics’, The Australian, 17 Jan 2003
Mary Lou Pavlovic, ‘PavModern’, catalogue essay, Unsigned Artists 2003, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Michael Hutak, ‘Strictly Modern’, The Bulletin, 22 October 2002
Matthew Collings and Mary Lou Pavlovic, ‘The Solemn and the Trivial versus the Serious and the Playful’, Australian Tour Catalogue, 2002
Samantha Semmens, ‘Matthew Collings comes to Town’, Artlink, Vol 22, Issue No. 3, 2002
Juliet Herd, ‘Trivial Pursuits’, Australian Review, Weekend Australian, 21 Sep 2002
Samantha Semmens, ‘Fallout’, Eyeline Magazine, March 2002
Chris Chapman ‘Border Zones’, Artlink, Vol 22, Issue No. 2, 2002 Victoria Heinz, ‘Cover Me’, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 February 2002
Lenny Anne Lowe, ‘Identity’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 February 2002
Victoria Heinz, ‘12 Galleries’, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 2002
Alison Barclay, ‘Fallout Tests Rights’, Melbourne Herald Sun, 17 December 2001
Carla Danaher, ‘Art is Sweetly Executed’, MX, 14 December 2002
Mary Lou Pavlovic, ‘Censorship Wars’, Letter to the Editor, Real Time 46, December 2001
Jennifer Purvis, ‘Sweet and Sour Sauce’, Eat Magazine, Issue No.3, 2001
Von Heidrun Wirth, ‘Bombenkunst mit Liebesperlen’, Kolnische Rundschau, 26 May 2000
Elizabeth Gower ‘The Retrieved Object’, (exhibition catalogue), Linden Gallery, Melbourne, 2000
Sebastian Smee, ‘Spinning It’, Sydney Morning Herald , 15 June 1999
Sandra Bridie, ‘Conversation with Mary Lou Pavlovic’, Talk, Issue No. 64, 1999
Greg Hooper, ‘It’s the Fridge Calling’, Real Time, Volume 2, Asia Pacific Triennial Special Edition, 1999
Andrew Murphie, ‘Nothing Personal’, (exhibition catalogue), Artspace, Sydney, 1998
Martin Herbert, ‘Perseverance Works’, Time Out London, Issue No. 1345, 29 May – 5 June 1996
Vickie Guerroro, ‘Art by the Bucket Load’, TNT London, Issue No. 664, 20 May 1996
Andrew Murphie, ‘Mary Lou Pavlovic’s Recent Work at Linden’, Eyeline Magazine, Issue No. 21, Summer 1993
Mary Eagle, ‘Discrete Entity’, Art and Text, Issue No. 41, January 1992
Jason Romney, ‘Pails of Anguish’, Melbourne Herald Sun, 21 May 1992
Anne McDonald, ‘Discrete Entity’, Agenda, Issue No. 13, 1992
Chris Chapman, ‘Discrete Entity’, Eyeline Magazine, Issue No. 17, Summer 1991